Trauma in the Body

When we experience stress, distress or trauma, our bodies respond with a fight, flight or freeze response. We fight for our lives, we flee to safety, or we freeze until it is over. Our bodies can get stuck in these high levels of arousal, especially when the “danger” is repetitive or traumatic. We learn to live in a ready state to fight, flee or freeze. This “ready state” gets stored in our body and becomes our “new normal.”

Traumatic events can include (but are not limited to):

abandonment/loss of a loved one

deprivation or neglect

abuse – physical, sexual, or verbal

rape

birth trauma

natural disasters or catastrophes

When we experience very stressful or traumatic events, whether one time or ongoing, our body’s nervous system stores them and we may experience any of the following as a result:

constant vigilance and watchfulness

numbness/being emotionally flat

anger/rage

powerlessness/helplessness/hopelessness

dissociation/disconnection

exhaustion

anxiety/panic

depression

In order for trauma to be healed, it must be attended to on all levels – body, mind, emotions and spirit.

The story needs to be told.

Long buried feelings need to be acknowledged, experienced and released in a safe way, in a safe place.

Your spiritual beliefs may need attending to as you try to make sense out of what has happened to you and why.

Your body needs to be released from the hold the trauma has on it. Trauma is stored in the nervous system and equilibrium needs to be restored.

Healing from trauma allows you to finish the incomplete events from your past and release your body from its habitual fight/flight/freeze response. Equilibrium gets restored and inner chaos is replaced with a new inner calm and quiet. You awaken from the habitual shut down and disconnected state you have lived in for so long. You learn to trust yourself and your own inner experience so it feels safe to be in the world. And because of these changes, you get to move forward in your life in a freer, more empowered way.

Wisdom Quotes

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh" he whispered.
"Yes Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Wisdom is learning how to live in harmony with the world as it is in any given moment.

When life knocks you down, roll over and look at the stars.

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
Mother Teresa

The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies.
Bessel van der Kolk

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. C.S. Lewis

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. Audre Lorde

Some people are going to leave but that's not the end of your story. It's the end of their part in your story.

Look for something positive in every day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.

Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Carl Bard

Cark Bard

If it can be solved, there is no need to worry, and if it can't be solved, worry is of no use.

Dalai Lama

Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles. It takes away today's peace.

Wisdom never forgets that all things have two sides.

Carl Jung

Fall down seven times.
Stand up eight.

Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you.

So this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you it's not scary.
Well, it is. But fear is natural, fear is good - it just means you're growing.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Albert Einstein

Maturing is realizing how many things don't require your comment.

Feelings are just visitors. Let them come and go.

Mooji

Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.

These pains you feel are messengers.
Listen to them.

Rumi

Today I decided to forgive you. Not because you apologized, or because you acknowledged the pain that you caused me, but because my soul deserves peace.

N.Zebian

“Give yourself a day of doing nothing to balance the discordant days of doing too much. Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.”

Scottish author and poet George MacDonald

When we numb the darkness we numb the light.
Brene Brown

I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things not meant for me.

“What is required to face trauma is the ability to mourn, fully and deeply, all that has been taken from us. Only through mourning everything we have lost can we discover that we have in fact survived; that our spirits are indestructible.”
Aurora Levins Morales, “Medicine Stories: History, Culture and the Politics of Integrity”